Who am I and why Grow Hemp Colorado?

I feel very privileged to start writing this blog at Grow Hemp Colorado (GHC) and hope that my posts bring some education and relevance to the burgeoning Industrial Hemp industry. This year will be my fourth growing season and I am currently working on my 59th and 60th isolated genetic lines at my indoor facility.

I hold a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Reproductive Biology and studied at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Houston and NYC, respectively. In March of 2014, I founded the Colorado Hemp Cooperative. Our goal is to provide farmers with access to certifiable seed at a THC concentration guaranteed to be under 0.3%.

Furthermore, through partnerships, we are able to generate income by profit sharing that is then distributed to farmers as dividends. Therefore, farmers make more money per acre through their membership with the Cooperative than if they were to go about it alone. We were the first and are still the only Cooperative registered with the Colorado Department of Agriculture to cultivate hemp.

In November of 2015, I was appointed to Colorado’s Industrial Hemp Advisory Committee as the Seed Certification Specialist and will be intimately involved in the development of Colorado’s hemp seed certification program.

This year, the Colorado Hemp Cooperative plans on entering three of our cultivars into the program and we expect to obtain full certification from the State. If you are interested in entering your genetics into the program or growing out ours, I’d be happy to work with you and provide any needed advice and/or knowledge on how the program works.

So why did I choose to start blogging for Grow Hemp Colorado?

First and foremost, I have yet to find a hemp based website that provides as much tangible and reliable information as GHC. Furthermore, the work being done by GHC to educate the general public and provide them with access to real hemp companies far surpasses anyone else I have met to date.

Finally, I truly appreciate the work being done by GHC to bring knowledge and eventually money to the Native American populations looking to get involved in hemp. Mr. Alex White Plume is a true American hero who deserves the opportunity to grow hemp undisturbed on his land.

What are my plans for this blog?

Ideally, I would like to help GHC in its public awareness and educational plans through regular blog posts on the industry as well as providing information I have learned in my own breeding trials and experiments. For example, see the tricot mutation I found in one of my experiments last winter.

Cannabis possesses the ability to develop one, two, three and sometimes even four leaflets at each node and I have obtained some interesting results from my studies of the tricot mutation. A more in depth description of this mutation will be presented in an upcoming post.

I’ll discuss the differences between the various Cannabinoids (THC vs. CBD vs. CBN vs. CBG…) and how genetics allows us to identify individuals with high THC, low THC, high CBD or low CBD. I’ll discuss how some if not most ‘high CBD hemp’ is actually marijuana and how it harms our industry.

I’ll give examples as to why hybridization of genetics leads to an increase in THC production, a fact that some growers in Colorado have learned the hard way. I’ll talk about hemp and its inherent ability to act as a ‘carbon sink’ as well as its ability to remediate soil.

Finally, I’ll be happy to address any questions and/or concerns brought on by you the reader. I am looking forward to this partnership and trust that this blog will provide the reader with the knowledge they desire and access to companies and groups that fit into their areas of interest.